Kalkwasser Reactor and Dosing Pumps ??? (1 Viewer)

[AggieBrandon]

Hello everyone,

I just purchased a kalkwasser reactor. Now I need to make a decision on how I want to hook it up to my system. I'm not sure if I want to hook my RO/DI unit directly to the reactor, use a small pump in a water storage reservoir, or use a dosing pump that draws water from the storage reservoir and then pushes it through the reactor. Each method will make use of an auto top off device (Top-Off Deluxe from http://www.top-off.com).

I'm looking for advice/opinions on what you guys use or what you recommend. If a dosing pump is the way to go I'm also looking for sources for dosing pumps or brands of pumps to look for.

All help is appreciated.

Brandon

 

[ShaneV]

I personally like the dosing pump method. Jf something goes wrong youll pump much less water, at a much slower rate.

Im using the Aquamedic SP3000, its been a good (Fairly inexpensive) dosing pump.

 

[AggieBrandon]

Shane,

Are you using that dosing pump with a float switch to turn it on and off or are you letting it dose non stop? I'm assuming you use a float switch. I have been looking at many different pumps and have read about the SP3000. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it was a constant rate and could not be adjusted. If you use it with a float switch though, that is not a problem. How long have you been using it? Is the tubing holding up well to the kalkwasser?

B

 

[Guest]

I was going to do the exact same setup as Shane's except I chose to temporarily go the cheap route and use an aqualift pump instead of the aquamedic sp3000.
Float switch from top-off.com turns the pump off and on, it pumps water from my resevoir through the reactor.

 

[AggieBrandon]

FMB,

What aqualift pump are you using and what do you think of it's performance?

Brandon

 

[Guest]

Got this pump, but haven't hooked it up yet.
Figure I'm done replumbing or changing things on my 90 gallon since I'm trying to sell it right now.
Gonna just wait till I get my smaller tank going and use it on that.
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...Product_Code=M3-AQUALIFTERPUMP&Category_Code=

 

[ShaneV]

I have it running through a top-off switch, so the set rate doesnt really matter.

The tubing has held up well so far, Ive been running for about a year and havent noticed any problems.

 

[justin-branam]

i have mine setup to where my Tunze Osmolator feeds it. It doses very small amounts, and unlike a dosing pump, it knows how much water has evaporated. this way if it is warmer one day and more water evaporates, you are still good, youll just have a little more kalk in the tank that day. im hopefully going to get another topoff system, so the kalk only runs at night to boost the pH.

 

[Guest]

My setup is a bit different than most.

Whatever system you go with, build in some redundancy. Expect any one piece to fail (including your float valve) and build it so that should any one piece fail you won't kill your tank.

On my system (in construction now), a timed (fail-closed) solenoid valve admits water from the RO unit into a 6 gallon reservoir (kept approx half full). The timer (digital) ensures that at most 2.5 gallons per day get into the reservoir (I evap 2 gallons a day). The reservoir has a float switch to cut the valve if the level gets too high. the overflow (should the valve stick open somehow) will hit the floor near a water alarm, but won't go into the tank.

A pump in the reservoir is controlled by a second float switch to push water through my kalkwasser "reactor".

There are more parts here, but I think it will be safer than most topoffs. I've heard of too many tanks killed off by a stuck float valve or switch.

 

[AggieBrandon]

Yeah there is a lot of thought being put into this setup. It will be on a future tank, not the current one. I am still working on aquiring all my equipment and also working on remodeling the house it will all go into. I'll be using float switches, timers, etc to keep the tank topped off. I'm also going to try to set the kalk reactor's drip rate to keep up with the evaporation so in the event of a failure of a timer/float switch or the like, the tank won't get flooded with kalk/freshwater.